Improvement in the manufacture op iron and steel



iron, or finery-iron, and throughthis metal I pass a,

ORVILLE M. PHILLIPS, or NEW YORKQN; Y. Lam; Patent No. 86,859, dated Februa/ry 9, 1869.

The Schedule referred to in these Letters Patent and making part of the lame.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, ORVILLE M. PHILLIPS, of the city, county, and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in the Manufacture of Iron and Steel; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description thereof, which will enable those skilled in the art to make and use the same. Thisinr'ention consists in forcing-through the molten metal, in a converter, a current or currents of pure oxygen-gas, in contradistinction to the current or currents of atmospheric air heretofore used, in such a manner, that by the action of the oxygen-gas, the heat created in the converter is much more intense, and the consumption and elimination of the impurities are effected much more rapidly than by the action of the atmospheric air in the old process, generally known as the Bessemer process, and by these means the process of refining iron, or converting iron into steel, is materially facilitated. A

In carrying out my invention, I take a converter of the ordinary construction, hung on trunnions, and provided with air-channels in its sides, or with an air-jacket, as described in the various patents granted to Henry Bessemer in the years l856and 1865.

Into this converter I introduce the molten crude current or currents of pure oxygen-gas. I

This gas, when used pure, and not diluted by nitrogen-gas, combines with the carbon .contained in the iron much more rapidly than common atmospheric air,

and the temperature of the metal is raised to such a high degree that the impurities contained therein are dilated and burned out more perfectly than by the old process.

I am enabled, therefore, to complete the process of refining iron, or converting iron into steel, in less time, and to produce a more uniform result, than can be done by the old process, where the molten iron is treated with atmospheric air. I

It is obvious that my process would have no practical value if the expense of producing oxygen-gas had not, by a recent inventiom been reduced to such a low state that the cost of this gas is no further impediment to its employment in the manner above described.

\Vhen the charge in the converter has attained the desired state of fineness, the flow of the oxygen-gas is stopped, the converter is emptied, a new f charge is introduced, and the process is repeated, as above described.

Having thus described my inveution,

What I claim as new, and'desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

The within-described process of refining iron, or of converting iron into steel, by passing through the molten metal a current or currents of oxygen-gas uncontaminated by nitrogen or other gases, substantially as set forth.

' ORVILLE M. PHILLIPS.

Witnesses.

W. HAUFF, Emsr F. Kns'rnnnunnn. 

